About
Thanks for stopping by.
This blog was founded by Andrew Ferrier and Chris Tomkins (below). Meet the team:
Andrew Ferrier
Andrew is a WebSphere ESB Specialist in IBM Software Services for WebSphere. He works extensively with customers and WebSphere ESB, and is a leading expert on the product. He has contributed to a Redbook on WebSphere ESB, as well as numerous presentations. |
David George
David is an IT Specialist for IBM Software Services for WebSphere, based in the UK. He supports customers in their development of SOA solutions using WebSphere Process Server and WebSphere ESB. |
Andy Piper 
Andy is a Consulting IT Specialist working for IBM Software Group in the UK.Andy has been with IBM Software Group since 2001. He is part of the Software Group Development Laboratories, and works on defining product futures, closing sales, producing collateral and improving software consumability, particularly around the WebSphere brand. Areas of expertise: WebSphere Message Broker, WebSphere MQ, WebSphere, XML. Architecture, design, infrastructure, development, troubleshooting and consulting. |
Kelly Drahzal Software Quality Engineering Manager at IBM Rational. Areas of expertise: Rational tooling. |
Michal Kuzak
Michal is an ex-IBM Software Services (ISSW) Consultant with focus on IBM Middleware Integration and Business Process Management. He’s an independent Websphere Process Server consultant and works with customers onsite implementing SOA Solutions. Areas of expertise: SOA Architecture, BPM/WPS, WID/IID, WESB, WMQ, WAS Network Deployment, Solution Design, Development, Infrastructure, troubleshooting and consulting. |
We hope you enjoy this blog. If there’s anything you’d like us to cover particularly, please get in touch by leaving a comment somewhere on this site or send us a Twitter.
SOA Tips 'n' Tricks 
Do you guys take questions on WESB & WID?
My company is evaluating WESB and running a simple pilot. I have some questions and issues on both WESB and WID.
I think we’re happy to answer questions if we can. Bear in mind that this blog isn’t official, though; at some point we might redirect you towards our sales organisation if the discussion gets too in-depth. Fire away.
Do you guys offer career advise on how to enter into SOA and Integration space. I am a web developer and have developed few webservies too but not sure how to make the jump from application programming to Enterprise integration and SOA. To what extent IBM SOA Solution designer certification help ?
Well, I don’t know about official career advice, but my recommendation would be to take a look around on sites like this and begin reading up on SOA. You may well find that the jump is not as great as you imagine – if you understand web services, you already understand one of the methods by which services in an SOA can connect!
As far as the qualification you mention, I don’t know enough to comment – you might find it helpful for certain employers, but my approach would be to speak to them and try to gain an understanding of what they’d be looking for.
Sorry I can’t be more specific!
I would like to know about your views on SOA Security and also regarding a particular product – Data Power ( SOA Security Gateway? ).
what do you feel is the biggest challenge in implementing SOA ?
Guys,
I don’t know if i can post my question here directly but i am still doing it. Any help would be appreciated.
I am evaluating WPS for our requirements, I need to develop a process in WPS , which will be called by an external client through a webservice call(SOAP over HTTP). But the client does not wait for a response and the client expects a callback at later time(i mean whenever the process is finished).
Clent is sending the callback information through WS-Addressing(ReplyTo details).
I could not get much information on this scenario, any help would be appreciated.
Thanks a Lot
Hello,
Not sure if I can post this here – please do let me know if it is so.
I have a very specific question regarding the import of external Web Services in my SCA component.
My environment is based on WID 6.0.1.2. I have a SCA component which has a BPEL implementation. The SCA component interacts with an imported Web Service Interface. The web services exposed by the external interface require an optional header element in SOAP Header which can be used internally by the operations for managing sessions. This Header element is not part of the interface exposed by my SCA component. I would like to know how do I go about attaching this additional SOAP header to the invocations of the operations by the SCA component. Is mediation the only way or is there any other solution as well? Please note that the header required by the external web service is a “implicict” header.
Thanks in advance.
@VM, you cannot – as far as I know – do this directly with BPEL. This is what a mediation module/flow provides – the ability to interact with headers. You will have to use one as a bridge between your BPEL module and your Web Service.
Hello Andrew,
Many thanks for the quick and precise response. I have been tryingt o do it for some time but somehow it does not seem to be working. Can you point out some good articles which cover use of mediation modules for manipulating SOAP headers?
Thanks in advance.
@VM,
This should answer most of your questions:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-soapheaders/
Hi Andrew,
Once again for the quick reply and the link.
I have prepared a solution based on the XSL Mediation primtive as described in the solution. However, it seems that the XSL Transformation is actually ignoring the SOAP Header block. It parses the SMO Header but does not even invoke the SOAP Header transformation. I determined this by including some xsl:message elements in my XSL to track the flow and the message in the SOAP header processing template never got invoked even though the call to invoke the same is there in the headers target.
Am I missing any thing or is there something wrong with my environment? Please do reply – if this level of detail is where I need to approach some other team, please let me know.
Thanks in advance.
@VM,
Sounds like the kind of thing that needs detailed investigation. I’d encourage you to raise a PMR with IBM Support.
Hi Andrew,
Many thanks for the reply.
We were able to solve the problem to some extent using Custom Mediation and adding the Header programmatically. However, the XSL mediation primitive just did not work for us. I think we will take it up separately.
One more quick question for you on Medaition Modules – let us say if we have an interface Interface1 with a ssingle operation op1. We also have a mediation component Mediation1 conforming to this interface. This mediation component is responsible for bridging the gap with an external web service offering multiple operations. The question is – is it possible for the op1 operation in Mediation1 to invoke multiple meethods in the target interface? We need to do this sequentially – e.g. in the target interface there is a method to log in the user, another to launch a system, another to get data and a final one to log the user off. How can we make the op1 operation invoke all of these methods i.e. when the op1 operation is invoked it invokes all the methods mentioned above sequentially?
Thanks in advance.
@VM, yes, as long as you are using WebSphere ESB 6.1. You probably want to look into using the new Service Invoke primitive, which will allow you to invoke a callout (i.e. in your case a Web Service import) in the ‘middle’ of a flow. Take a look at this article, which gives an overview of the new features, including this:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-wesb61/index.html?ca=drs-
If you’re using WebSphere ESB 6.0.2 or earlier, you can probably still do this, but you’d need some custom Java code.
Hi All,
I need to invoke service which is exposed as SCA binding from inside a plugin on Websphere ESB. How can I invoke sca service? Any sugestions .
Thanks in Advance
@Akansh,
Can you be more precise about what you mean by ‘plugin’? Are you referring to a custom ESB primitive?
Hi Andrew,
Plugin is basically an mediation primitive eclipse plug -in. i.e. Plugin will be available on the palette in the mediation flow editor.
I reinterate my problem statement. I have to call a SCA service, defined in some other module from inside this plugin. I am not able to find out the solution for this problem.
Akansh,
Firstly, you cannot call an SCA component in another module directly. You will have to explicitly export it – probably using the SCA Export. Then, you will need to create a corresponding SCA Import in the module you want to invoke it from. You’ll need to write your Mediation Flow Component to this Import so that there is a reference on your MFC.
Then, something like this should do the trick:
Service service = (Service) ServiceManager.INSTANCE.locateService(“referenceName”);
DataObject result = (DataObject) service.invoke(“operationName”, params);
The details will vary depending on your exact scenario.
Do consider whether a custom primitive is the right way to do this. A Service Invoke primitive, new in 6.1, allows you to do much the same without writing code.
hello, i am using WID 6.0.2.2 and just wonder if you have any idea why i have to restart the application server when i make a minor change in the mediation project, otherwise i get exeptions like cannot find in local context, wsdl definition is not found. i am using the standalone server which is bundled with the WID.
osman, this is a well-known problem, unfortunately.
If you can reproduce it reliably on your system, I would encourage you to open a PMR with IBM:
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/support/probsub.html
Hi , I have a scenario where message broker is getting a SOAP/HTTP request from WAS and then broker has to call another web service(SOAP/HTTP) running in WAS after doing some transformation but I would like to persist the original SOAP header contents and pass the same to my final service. How can I do that?
Please help?
Hi, I have a multiple Business process in a single module. one is Long running process which invokes a micro flow sub process, THe Micros flow is called after a human task is executed,
if i want to version the microflow when Human task is waiting for reply. how can i achieve it i a single module.
Is it possible to achieve the above behaviour, i am able to do the same with different module, but want to know is it possible within the single module
@harish, sorry, I don’t think this is possible. You can only replace an entire module.
If you connect your modules using SCA, this is relatively efficient and straightforward. You shouldn’t incur much overhead.
Hi Experts,
I am back again after some rest hoping that things in our environment would have changed. But, we are still on WPS/WESB 6.0.1 though talks have started on migrating to 6.1. However, the final decision will take some time. Till then, a new challenge.
I have a scenario where my mediaition module wants to post a message (after transformation) to a remote queue. We are doing the posting of the message prgrammatically as we need to handle things like ServiceRuntimeException. So, at the other end of the mediation module is a JAva component which haas the task of taking the transformed message and sending it to the remote queue. The queue is going to be configured on a completely different machine. From what I understand, there is a way to make use of the SIBus to expose a channel which is connected to the remote queue (by configuration). The Java component can then send the message to this channel and the rest will be handled by the SIBus.
Please correct me if my understanding/approach is wrong. Also, a few pointes on where I can find more information on this will be very helpful.
Thanks and Regards.
@VM,
I think you are looking for an SIBus alias queue. This allows you to put messages ‘locally’, and have them forwarded to a remote destination.
Hi,
I am getting the following error:”Cannot connect to localhost,port:25″ while I am trying to implement Email functionality of IBm WID using JNDI
My IBM WID version is 6.1.0.17.I am not able to implement Email functionality in this version,but I am able to implement the Email functionality of WID in version 6.1.0.19.What can be the solution to the problem?
Hi,
I have a scenario where my mediaition module wants to post a message (after transformation) to a remote queue. The queue is going to be configured on a completely different machine.
Also the Mediation module Export component should listen to the Queue which is created on different machine.
Do we have any ways other than creating a common bus to both the server.
Harish,
You don’t say what kind of queue this is. Is this a WebSphere JMS queue? Or is it hosted on WebSphere MQ?
Andrew,
it is Websphere JMS Queue. Let me know if you need any other details
i am using WID version 6.1.2
@harish,
I think you will want to take a look at using a foreign bus:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v6r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.websphere.pmc.nd.doc/tasks/tjj0074_.html
Hope that helps,
Andrew.
Andrew,
when using foreign bus, does both the server should be be in clustered.
If not in cluster how to do?
No, they don’t need to be clustered, just defined as foreign buses. This is quite a complex and detailed topic; I suggest you read through the Infocenter thoroughly.
Andrew
Thanks a lot, it worked very well.
Also, is there any disadvantage of using Foreign bus, at what scenario do we need to use this foreign bus
Hi,
I have a scenario in ESB, where currently i have configured three queues(Queue1,Queue2,Queue3)
based on my routing logic the message will be routed to the respective queues (Queue1,Queue2,Queue3) .
In future we might add more queues to the same routing logic, i.e for a single condition the message can be routed to more than one queues. This should be done without modifying the Mediation Module.
The goal is to make the mediation process configurable, so that it can be used to route and filter incoming messages to multiple queues to help scale the message processing.
My version of WID is 6.1.2
Experts,
Its been a long time since we interacted. Hope things are well at you end.
This time around I have a couple of questions around WS-Security.
First a brief about the environment:
WID 6.0.1
WPS 6.0.1.6
ESB 6.0.1.6
TAM 5.1
What we are trying to do is secure all our web services using Basic Authentication, LTPA and Username token where either one of LTPA or Username token can be used.
My first question is whether there is any how-to article/document around what has to be done in the WID projects to configure basic auth and either LTPA or Username token.
Before I jump into my second question, a little background on how the services are layered in this context. All mediation modules are on ESB and all BPEL ones are (obviously) on WPS. WPS services generally invoke ESB services which integrate with various back-ends. This invocation is using the WS binding. Moreover, though the WPS services are exposed as Web Services, they are not to be invoked directly from outside. There is an ESB Facade deployed which acts as the gateway for the world outside. Between the ESB Facade and the WPS module, the invocation is via WS binding again. Hence, the layers look like as follows:
ESB Facade -> BPEL -> ESB
All the services in the layer will have Basic Auth, LTPA and Username token enabled on them.
The question is if the Facade receives a set of user credentials in the HTTP Request Header and either a LTPA or Username token from the consumer, can the same be propagated to all the other layers? If so, how can this be configured?
Thanking you in advance for your time. Please feel free to get back to me for any further clarifications.
Regards,
@VM,
To be honest, that’s a really complex question, and we don’t have space here to go into all the details.
I would suggest you start with this series of articles: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/techjournal/0604_singh/0604_singh.html. They are for WebSphere Application Server, so some of the details will be different. Specifically, when you’re working with WPS/WESB, you tend to configure design-time security through the Deployment Editor on the Process Server project in question, rather than at the ‘lower-level’ J2EE configuration layers the article is talking about. The panels are very similar, however.
Hi,
Just wanted to say thanks to you guys. Your effort has made life bit easy for many practitioners like me.
@Priyankar,
No problem. Thanks for your kind words.
Thanks for content guys…Its a great effort. Though i write about WAS, MQ, MB etc on my blog, i’m student here.
Alo:
greatest post, got stuff in WID 6.2 and svn, I just made a java comp and its implementation, wid generates a .java in the module dir, but also the .class, and of course in the business integration perspective, physical resources view, I cannot see this .class, I commit to svn repo, .class is present, so I was thinking in adding a svn:ignore to filter .class, BUUUUTTTTT…. this guide of IBM
Team development and artifact management in
WebSphere Integration Developer v6.2 said isnt necessary, who i believe then ?
Thanks to Google that I found this trove.
I was reading through the user’s question (in particular Harish) and found more details about Service bus from the infocenter link.
My question:
Cannot the service offered by Bus, be achieved by means of JMS Queues and MDB? Sorry did not get the difference.
Please ignore this. Just to subscribe.
hi,
I would like to add your blog to our websphere library [http://websphere.gizapage.com]. Let us know, if it is okey for you.
Thanks
Hi Andrew,
We newly adapted WESB in one of our latest projects, now we have to design a workflow module to call my SCA services (SCA Binding Exports from many mediation modules) depending on some business logic. Workflow may change on different factors and can have 30 – 40 distinct flows (No Manual tasks). I am planning to build the workflow logic in Java(as it is complex) and need a way to invoke my SCA services from Java module (deployed seperately on ESB server as a web project).
Or is there any better way of doing this..?
Note: We are not allowed to use Websphere Process server.
Sriram,
You could build this in a Java component, yes, using standard SCA references to invoke the other components.
I would seriously consider also, however, building it in a mediation flow, using the Service Invoke primitive. If your logic is as complex as you describe, you should probably try to decompose it further into several mediation flows.
However (and you won’t like this), it sounds like WPS is probably the correct answer for your scenario. Heavyweight process/workflow choreography is not what WESB is intended for, and you will, most likely, find a flow of that size a little cumbersome to build. You will also have some practical problems: because WESB does not contain the concept of “long-running” BPEL, it is not able to passivate your process to disk and will not save it when it fails half-way through. You need to think through your failure cases very carefully.
Regards,
Andrew.
Hi Andrew
Just a small query….
Can we use compensation in microflows to invoke a external service api.
Can we have have a reply activity after throw Or can we have throw activity after reply.?
Thnx in Advance.
Regards
Vikas
Hi,
Have a question on Pattern Specification. Thinking of using the pattern spec as our application calls many external vendors. The problem is that the external vendors support a mix of protocols. Not able to choose the right one that addresses all. My question is can I use ‘Proxy Service Gateway’ which in turn proxies a set of Proxies (each supporting specific protocols).
May I request you to suggest or blog on the Proxy Pattern Specification?
Hi Experts,
I have a query related to IBM-WPS runtime behaviour. I am working on parallel activities and wanted to know if parallel activities are only applicable for ‘long running process’ or if they are applicable for ‘microflows’ as well. What if I make a parallel activity in a microflow will they run concurrently????
Regards
Priya
Hi,
My environment is
IBM WebSphere Integration Developer
Version: 6.1.2
Build id: 6.1.2ifix001-20080805_0917
I am trying to invoke a long running process from a micro flow, the server hangs after invoke activity to “long running process”.
i get the below message in my server concole>>
<>
can some one bail me out of the situation :)
thanks in advance
Raghu
[11/18/11 17:45:31:279 IST] 00000455 BOCore I No schema found with namespace “http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace”.
[11/18/11 17:45:31:341 IST] 00000455 BOCore I Found a static package com.ibm.wsspi.sca.message.impl.MessagePackageImpl with namespace=”http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope”.
Hi Experts,
I created an Email outbound adapter using WPS v 6.2 and it worked fine on local.But as soon as I deployed the .ear file of the module on development environment(clustered evironment built on Unix),it started giving me the following exception:-
00000062 EMARA001 I com.ibm.j2ca.email.EmailManagedConnection createManagedConnection CWYBS0497E: The
Resource Bundle com.ibm.j2ca.email.LogMessages using Locale en_US cannot be loaded.
[10/28/12 4:51:57:531 CDT] 00000062 EMARA001 I com.ibm.j2ca.email.EmailInteraction execute CWYBS0497E: The Resource Bundle
com.ibm.j2ca.email.LogMessages using Loc
ale en_US cannot be loaded.
Please suggest how I can resolve this issue.
Thanks in advance,
Parul Saxena